The headquarters for the U.S. Archdiocese for Military Services in this file photo from June 2007.

Editor's note: This article first appear in St. Anthony Messenger in November 2004.

Archbishop O’Brien [then head of the Archdiocese for the Military] calls the work of those in the military a “noble
profession,” akin to police officers. Their duty, he says, “is to defend
the weak and the poor and the defenseless. I think it is not only a
noble profession but also a lofty vocation.

“Christ defined himself as one who came to serve and not
be served. We have young people giving their lives to total strangers
for the cause of peace. They wouldn’t be doing what they are doing
unless they’re peacemakers.”

But he points out that even St. Augustine recognized
“that at times we must take actions that otherwise would be unpalatable
because there’s evil in the world and we have to confront evil by
putting an end to it somehow.” He described just war as “benevolent
severity,” but only as a truly last resort. St. Thomas Aquinas treats
the military profession under the category of charity, he says.

And what about the Good Samaritan?

“What would have happened a half hour before if that Good
Samaritan came down and found the man about to be attacked or in the
middle of the attack?” Archbishop O’Brien asks.

“Did he have a right to step back and say, ‘I’ll become a
Good Samaritan when the thing’s over,’ or did he have an obligation to
step in and do what he had to do and only what he had to do to put an
end to that aggression? That is what our people are sworn to do.”

Father Bruno is even more direct: “Whether anyone likes
it or not, the Church is in the military. So what would they have us do,
just withdraw and leave them alone? Let them fend for themselves?
“I would say on the average probably 25 percent—anywhere
from 23 to 28 percent—of the active-duty personnel in the Department of
Defense at any one time are Roman Catholic. That’s a huge number of
people. So what do we do? Leave them alone? Let them go it alone, not be
there to provide for them? We can’t really do that as a Church. Like it
or not, they are a part of the Church and the Church needs to be there
for them.”